[Weekly Compilation of Presidential Documents Volume 39, Number 24 (Monday, June 16, 2003)]
[Pages 751-755]
[Online from the Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]

<R04>
Remarks to Senior Citizens in 
New Britain, Connecticut

June 12, 2003

    Thanks for the warm welcome. I really want to thank the good folks 
of the New Britain General Hospital for putting up with me and the 
entourage. [Laughter] But thanks for letting me come to talk about some 
important issues facing America.
    I'm on my way to Maine, where I'm going to spend the weekend with 
one of my favorite seniors. [Laughter] He is turning 79 today. I'm not 
going to tell you how old my mother

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is, because I want to have a place to sleep. [Laughter]
    Thanks for giving me a chance to come down. We face big challenges 
in this country. We've still got a challenge of making sure the Nation 
is secure and the world is more peaceful. Even though we've been 
successful in two major battles in Afghanistan and Iraq, there is still 
an enemy who lurks, who hates America because of what we stand for. And 
we stand for freedom. That's what we believe. We believe in freedom to 
worship, freedom to speak, freedom to succeed. And those freedoms are 
dear to our heart.
    And people don't like the fact that we stand for freedom and promote 
freedom. And therefore, they're out there. But we'll find them, and 
we'll bring them to justice. There's no greater job for an 
administration than to protect the security of the American people. And 
that's precisely what this administration will continue to do.
    And we have got a challenge when it comes to quality health care for 
our seniors. We face a challenge because many seniors face the high cost 
of prescription drugs. It's a challenge we've got to deal with here. 
Today I'm going to act on how to speed up the approval of generic drugs, 
to make sure that prescriptions are more affordable for all Americans, 
particularly our seniors.
    We also face a challenge because the Medicare system is antiquated. 
Medicine is modernizing, and Medicare isn't. And that's not right for 
our seniors. And so I've come here today to remind Congress that 
Congress has an obligation and a responsibility to meet the needs of our 
seniors and to make sure that Medicare is modern.
    And there's no more strong advocate for making sure Medicare meets 
its promises than Nancy Johnson. She is a tireless advocate for quality 
health care all across America. And I want to thank her for her 
leadership. And I want to thank her for her friendship. And I want to 
thank her for her introduction.
    I was a Governor once, so I got to know the Governors--the Nation's 
Governors. And the State of Connecticut has got a great Governor in John 
Rowland. He's been dealt a pretty tough hand this last year, but he's 
playing it like a pro. And the citizens of this State are fortunate to 
have him here.
    I want to thank the mayors who are here. The best politics, of 
course, is local politics. I want to thank you all for coming. I 
appreciate you taking your time out of your day for coming.
    I met Ruth Campanario when I got off the chopper. And you probably 
say, why would you mention her? Well, there's a lot of focus on the 
great strength of America these days. They talk about our military 
might, and we're plenty tough if we have to be. They talk about our 
muscle, but the true strength of the country is the heart of the country 
because of the compassion of the citizens who live here.
    And Ruth is a volunteer; she volunteers at the Friendship Service 
Center. It's a local shelter that offers emergency and transitional 
housing and job training and counseling services. She takes time out of 
her life to try to make somebody else's life better. That's the strength 
of America. It's the willingness of people to serve something greater 
than yourself, to love a neighbor just like you'd like to be loved 
yourself.
    So Ruth, I want to thank you and thank all who volunteer to make 
their communities a better place. And thank you for coming. Where are 
you, Ruth? Oh, there you are. Stand up, Ruth. Thank you. Thank you very 
much.
    Our health care system is the best in the world, and we need to keep 
it that way. We're great because we've got great docs. We're great 
because we've got unbelievable research; new technologies literally save 
lives on a daily basis. I mean, we're really good at health care. But 
we've got problems we've got to deal with.
    And one of the problems is the cost of prescription drugs. We live 
in an age of miracle drugs. Millions of our citizens have found healing 
and hope from medicines that were discovered and created in this 
country, and it's--but the treatment, the use of drugs, has replaced 
major surgeries as well. Treatment is changing. And this has been a 
blessing. It's been a blessing for a lot of seniors who are living 
longer and better lives. But the challenge for America is to make sure

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that lifesaving drugs are both affordable and available to America's 
seniors.
    Now, one way to make prescriptions more affordable is to ensure that 
generic drugs are not delayed in reaching the market, are not delayed 
for consumers to be able to purchase. In our system, when a drug company 
develops a new medicine, the company is given a patent. And patents 
ensure that investment and innovation are rewarded, so we continue to 
get additional lifesaving drugs as new discoveries are made. It makes 
sense to have a system that protects investment for a while.
    Yet when a patent expires, other companies have the right to make a 
safe, lower cost genetic version of the drug. However, the system a lot 
of time doesn't work because the original inventor of the drug uses 
delaying tactics to avoid competition. They delay the process of patent 
expiration so that consumers don't have additional choices of generic 
drugs.
    At my direction, today the Federal Drug Administration, the FDA, is 
taking action to close loopholes that slow the movement of generic drugs 
to the marketplace. First, we are limiting the amount of time that a 
drug company can delay the marketing of a generic competitor. Instead of 
letting them file one delay after another, the Government will allow a 
single 30-month stay while legal complexities are sorted out. In other 
words, the initial manufacturer of a drug will not be allowed to use the 
legal process for endless delay, which hurts our consumers in America. 
Secondly, we are no longer allowing drug companies to block generics 
because of patents on minor features, such as the color of the pill 
bottle or some combination of ingredients not related to the 
effectiveness of the medicines. Thirdly, we are tightening the overall 
rules on patent applications so that false statements to get a patent 
result in criminal charges.
    By taking these actions, we will bring generic drugs to the market 
much more quickly--in some cases, years earlier. And this should save 
the American consumers about $3.5 billion each year--savings that will 
go, of course, to the consumers, to our seniors, or to Medicaid programs 
administered by the State, or to employer health plans.
    The Senate is looking to write these reforms that we're now 
implementing to executive action in the law. And I support their 
efforts. I want to work with both the House and the Senate on this 
legislation to make certain that prescription drugs are more affordable 
to the American people.
    And then we've got to deal with the issue of accessibility for our 
seniors. People on Medicaid, Medicare need to have a choice of 
affordable plans, all of which provide prescription drug benefits. Every 
Federal employee--including every Member of Congress--gets to choose the 
health coverage that best fits their needs. If it's good enough for the 
employees and the Members of Congress to have choice, it's good enough 
for our seniors to have choice when it comes to health care plans as 
well.
    And so here are the choices available. If a senior wants to stay in 
the current Medicare system, they should have that option. And that 
option should include a prescription drug benefit. If seniors want to 
have enhanced benefits, such as more coverage for preventative care and 
other services, they ought to have that choice as well. And finally, 
seniors who like the affordability of managed care plans should be able 
to enroll in managed care plans. They shouldn't be starved to death so 
seniors don't have that option. And low income seniors should receive 
extra help in meeting whatever plan--the premiums of whatever plan they 
choose so that all seniors will have the ability to choose a Medicare 
option that includes the prescription drug benefit.
    These are the principles on the legislation that Nancy and I are 
working on. And these are the principles that we believe will be 
incorporated in the bill, so long as you let your Senators and others 
know that you're interested in reform, that you want a modern Medicare 
system.
    Sandra Sorensen--I just met with some of your fellow citizens from 
the area, all of whom are seniors. I listened to their stories. Let me 
share some of the stories with you. Sandra Sorensen is here. She is on a 
Connecticut special program called ConnPACE, a program that, Johnny, you 
probably helped design. It helps her on her prescription drugs.

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    The problem is, is that she wants to move up to be with her daughter 
in New Hampshire. Her daughter is worried about her at times, I guess is 
the right thing to say, Sandra, kind of worried about you. She wants you 
to make sure that, you know, that you're well taken care of. She wants 
to be close by. The problem is, if she goes to New Hampshire, she loses 
ConnPACE, which means she won't have the medicines necessary to take 
care of her current ailments. We need to reform Medicare to make sure 
people have got the capacity to go from one State to the other without 
losing prescription drugs.
    The Rowlands are with us today, Ralph and Bernice. They were quite 
outspoken about the need to make sure the Medicare system works 
properly. Ralph was wondering out loud, ``How come Medicare doesn't try 
to prevent disease before it happens?'' That seems to make sense. 
[Laughter] It doesn't. They pay now about $200 a month, and what they're 
worried about is increasing drug costs will make it very difficult for 
them to live out their older years.
    The Humphreys are with us as well. Ginny spent her time working in 
the Connecticut health care system. She knows a lot about health care. 
She claims she had a stroke; it's certainly hard to tell it. She's very 
articulate. But she understands--and she likes Medicare+Choice, but she 
sees that Medicare+Choice is slowly getting starved in the budgets of 
the Federal Government. The plan also doesn't have a drug coverage. They 
spend about $1,000 each month on a variety of medicines. They need a 
modern Medicare system so they can live out the rest of their years in 
comfort.
    Lois Splain is here with us. She likes Medicare. She likes being 
able to choose her doctor without a referral. But she needs coverage for 
prescription drugs. Hilda Gandara is here from--Cuban American is with 
us. And she is--lives in West Hartford. Unfortunately, she lost her 
husband recently. She's on her own, like a lot of seniors are. Her costs 
are--drug costs are about $700 a year. She's worried about whether or 
not she can afford prescription drugs.
    There's story after story after story all across America about 
people wondering whether or not they can afford lifesaving drugs in 
their later years. And the Congress must act. That's what the Congress 
must do. The Congress must understand we've got a problem with Medicare. 
They should not politicize the issue. They ought to focus on what's best 
for our fellow Americans and get a package done. And the House needs to 
get it done, and the Senate needs to get it done prior to the Fourth of 
July break.
    One of the important parts of a good health care system is the 
relationship between patient and doctor. And any good health care policy 
must recognize that relationship. But we've got a problem in America 
that is affecting the relationship between patient and doctor, and that 
is we got a medical liability system that is out of control. If we want 
affordable health care and available health care, we got to make sure 
that junk lawsuits don't run docs out of business and run the cost of 
medicine up so high that people can't afford medicine.
    And it's an issue--it's a real issue all across America. And if 
people in America don't think their bills are being affected by these 
frivolous lawsuits, then they don't really understand the system, in my 
judgment. The cost drivers are high. Not only are docs having to pay 
higher and higher premiums--I suspect we'd find some pretty good 
testimony right here. I heard it yesterday from a baby doc in Chicago 
whose premiums, annual premiums are $170,000 a year. He anticipates 
they'll go up 40 percent next year, and he's never been sued.
    The other cost driver is preventative medicine. If there's a--if 
people are filing lawsuits right and left in our society, which they 
are, it's natural that a doctor or a hospital will want to practice more 
medicine than is necessary to be able to defend themselves in case they 
end up in a court of law. And that's expensive.
    This is a Federal issue, in my judgment, because of the costs of 
litigation--how it affects the Federal budget. It affects the cost of 
Medicare. Lawsuits affect the cost of Medicaid. It affects the cost of 
veterans' health care. It is a national issue that requires a national 
solution. And that national solution says people ought to have their day 
in court. But junk lawsuits make it harder for somebody who's actually 
been hurt to have their

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day in court. It also recognizes bad doctors need to be punished, 
something good doctors fully subscribe to. It recognizes that people 
ought to be able to recover their economic damages, but there needs to 
be a hard cap of $250,000 on non-economic damages. And we need to make 
sure that we have a reasonable cap on punitive damages.
    This is a necessary part of health care reform. It is necessary to 
keep docs in business. It is necessary to keep consumers in a position 
where they can have affordable and available health care. The House has 
passed the bill. The Senate needs to pass the bill. And if you're 
interested in medical liability reform, you ought to contact the United 
States Senators from the State in which you live and let them know your 
opinion.
    I believe we can get things done in Washington, DC, if we remember 
whose time we're on. We're on the people's time in the Nation's Capital. 
We spend--we're there to get the job done. By working together, we can 
make sure this country is more secure and, I believe, the world more 
peaceful. And by working together, we can make sure that our folks have 
got economic security and, as importantly, health security.
    I want to thank you for giving me the chance to come today to talk 
about an exciting opportunity for those of us who are honored to serve 
the American people--the opportunity to bring Medicare into the 21st 
century, so we can look our seniors in the eye and say we were called to 
solve a problem, and by working together, we were able to solve that 
problem, not only for this generation but for future generations to 
come.
    Thanks for your time. May God bless you. May God continue to bless 
America.

Note: The President spoke at 1:03 p.m. in the cafeteria at New Britain 
General Hospital. In his remarks, he referred to Representative Nancy L. 
Johnson of Connecticut.